If Cornwally felt that it would be detrimental to the British East India Company to continue to provide military technology to Zhou Lang, then he would definitely refuse to provide it and do everything possible to obstruct it.

So Zhou Lang sent Xie Qinggao, not to find the British, but also asked him to go to Batavia to find the Dutch, the Dutch's technology is not as good as the British, but the third-class battleships on the bad streets of the West can also be produced, and the level of casting guns should be the same level in the whole of Europe, otherwise it is impossible to fight back and forth all the time, at least there is no generation difference between each other.

Compared to the thriving United Kingdom, the Netherlands is on the decline, but weaker opponents tend to be easier to deal with because they have small chips. Zhou Lang's chips are also small, and at present, there is only a decent base in Tagu Port, and the commercial value is not very high, but the deal to exchange some technical assistance with the Dutch should be enough.

After ten days of rest, the army finally completed its formation.

To be honest, most people didn't complete the training, especially the three thousand recruits, but Zhou Lang didn't have time for them to complete the training in an orderly manner, so they could only be pulled to the battlefield to learn war, and the progress in actual combat often came faster without training.

The main force is Zhou Lang's five hundred veterans, this group of veterans have completed half a year's training before going to Guangzhou, and because of the high-intensity training taken by Zhou Lang at that time, their pace and the use of weapons have been quite level, and they have gone to Guangzhou once, and they also have the experience of conducting large-scale operations, so Zhou Lang directly and boldly let them serve as the main force.

This is the first time that Zhou Lang's own men and horses have served as the main force of the attack, instead of relying on mercenaries as before, the main force of the battle relies on mercenaries, even if he goes to Guangzhou, it is the Indian native soldiers under Colin who serve as the main force.

These native soldiers are still there, after Zhou Lang brought them from Guangzhou to Taiwan, now the control over them is stronger than in Guangzhou, after all, obedience is such a thing, it will be strengthened with continuous obedience, they obey Zhou Lang once, there will be a second time, a third time.

At the same time, the officers among them were also wooed, first of all, Fischer, Zhou Lang was more at ease with him, but still could not take him as a confidant, in order to win him over, he told Fischer that he was temporarily appointed as a military adviser to the China (East India) Company, and had been submitted to the board of directors, and when formally appointed, he would be the company's highest military adviser, not only responsible for advising and planning the company's military operations, but also directly leading 1,500 Indian mercenaries.

The other two captains, Deacon and Brad, Zhou Lang chose to divide the mercenaries into two, artillery and baggage troops, under Brad's command, and Deacon was in charge of the infantry. The positions of other officers remain unchanged, their salaries and pensions are paid by the company, and they are treated as ordinary mercenaries, as for the way the East India Company will restrain them, Zhou Lang can't think of it, at most it will pay them additional subsidies, but Cornwally may not do this, he at most uses the British officers in the army to indirectly control this army, of course, he will only do this when he is in direct conflict with Zhou Lang, usually these people can only exist as mercenaries under Zhou Lang.

Since it is reasonable for mercenaries to let them fight, but Zhou Lang is unwilling to rely too much on them, and he also has the heart to test his troops, this time this mercenary will also act, but not with Zhou Lang's men, but at sea, they will be as fleet marines, if the situation allows, cooperate with the fleet to attack the battery from the sea.

Zhou Lang's soldiers set off from the land and took the official road to Donggang.

Donggang is about 156 miles away from Tagu Port, and there are official roads connecting between them, but Donggang is located at the east estuary of Xiadanshui Creek (Gaoping Creek), where the water surface is wide, and can only be smuggled by boats.

Zhou Lang sent Zhao Wen to march forward with 300 elites, seize the ferry, and search for fishing boats. At this time, it would be nice to have a cavalry, as a consultant, Fischer made three suggestions to Zhou Lang, the first was to form cavalry, and the other two were to make a uniform military uniform and create a grenadier.

The last two have already begun to be prepared, and the fabrics for making thousands of sets of military uniforms cannot be made up for a while, and the design of the military uniforms has not been determined. Grenadier literally, bomb-throwing troops, in the 17th century, this class was very popular, because the power of black powder is weak, in order to ensure sufficient power, it is often very heavy, much heavier than later grenades, so grenadiers will select those who are the most powerful and powerful. With the advancement of artillery technology and the emergence of light infantry artillery, the problem of fire support has been solved, and there is no need for the grenadiers to exist, but the prestige left by the grenadiers in history has not made this branch disappear, and countries will still choose those soldiers with excellent physical fitness to form grenadiers, but at this time, the grenadiers are actually infantry, but because of their physical fitness and sense of honor, the grenadier regiment has always been the title of the ace troops of various countries.

Zhou Lang is very interested in forming such a deterrent force, but at present, there are not enough experienced veterans in the army, and if new recruits are selected, it will not be a trump card unit.

The garrison of Donggang is not weak, and it has been inquired clearly, there are 1,000 people stationed here in the Penghu Water Division, and the number of troops in the Penghu Water Division Battalion in Taiwan Town is only 2,017, so it can be said that half of the troops are here, and there are also 2,000 horse infantry stationed there. The defense facilities of Donggang are equivalent to that of Dagu Port, there are forts, watchtowers and other facilities, which used to be called Fengshan Horn, and the other horn is Zuoying, which was the county seat at that time, which shows the importance here. Moreover, the defense facilities here are more complete than those of Dagu Port, unlike Dagu Port, which has been abandoned for a long time, but Donggang has been strengthened a few years ago because of the Heaven and Earth Society.

When Lin Shuangwen revolted, Nanlu Zhuang Datian captured most of Fengshan County, and Ding Chaoxiong, the general of Taiwan's naval division, sent troops to recover Donggang, which was soon captured again, and Ding Chaoxiong recovered Donggang twice, and then insisted until Lin Shuangwen's uprising was quelled. Interestingly, Ding Chaoxiong used the same method to attack Donggang twice, sending spies to secretly climb the fort to "inject water into the thief cannon", I really don't know how chaotic the organization of the Heaven and Earth Society is, and the fort guarded by the town can allow the enemy to secretly climb up and fill the cannon with water, and it is twice.

In short, artillery is very important, and like Tagu Port, if there is artillery, it is difficult for the enemy to conquer. Therefore, Ding Chaoxiong had to fill the cannon with water before attacking. Therefore, after Ding Chaoxiong occupied Donggang, he himself attached great importance to the maintenance of the forts, and reinforced and replaced the broken forts and obsolete cannons.

Last time, the Qing army mastered the main road of Donggang when Fengshan County was lost, not only to maintain a base in southern Taiwan, but also to cut off the Pingtung Plain to transport military rations to the enemy in Fengshan County, and finally succeeded in quelling the uprising. This successful experience allowed the Qing army to choose to gain a firm foothold in Donggang again and then counterattack when Tagu Port was lost.

But this time his opponent was not the Heaven and Earth Society, but Zhou Lang, at least Zhou Lang couldn't let their spies fill their cannons with water twice, and Zhou Lang was not willing to wait for the Qing army to attack, but wanted to hit the door if he could.

Zhou Lang had difficulty traveling all the way with the large army, and almost walked along the seaside, and the distance of fifteen miles was very slow, and it took two days.

First, the road is difficult, and second, Zhou Lang seeks stability.

I heard that Zeng Guofan had a six-character mantra in the war, "Tie the knot and fight the dumb war", and the business community in later generations had a craze for learning Zeng Guofan for a period of time, and Zhou Lang also spent Zeng Guofan's biography, and he found that Zeng Guofan's method was very stupid, but it was excellent.

Zeng Guofan led the troops on the march, and he had to set up camp wherever he went, never camping in the wild, and let the soldiers dig trenches no matter whether it was windy or rainy. The trench had to be dug two meters, which was higher than a man. And the wall must be built, and the wall must be built to a height of eight feet, and another trench must be dug outside the wall to ensure that the camp is protected.

With such a water mill, the speed of the march must not be guaranteed, and Zeng Guofan never sought speed, and he also stipulated that the Hunan army marched thirty miles every day, and set up camp when it arrived. The army set out at dawn and rested before dark, in an orderly manner. But this speed is really too slow, during the Ming Dynasty, Li Zicheng's army could still run sixty miles a day, from Beijing to Shanhaiguan to fight Wu Sangui, a distance of 330 kilometers, it took only nine days; The Red Army often forced a 100-kilometer march in a day and then went straight into battle.

Therefore, Zeng Guofan walked too slowly, but this way of moving was very stable. Zeng Guofan sought stability because he could slowly follow the Taiping army when he fought, and Zhou Lang also walked steadily because he couldn't afford to lose and didn't want to have any mistakes.

Another reason is that Zhou Lang's soldiers are indeed not good, and Zeng Guofan's experienced Hunan army can walk thirty miles calmly. But Zhou Lang found that his soldiers couldn't do it, firstly, the physical fitness and training level of the soldiers were not as good as the Hunan army at the peak, and secondly, the management level was too poor, and there were hundreds of staff members in the army of Zeng Guofan, and Zhou Lang was seriously lacking civilian officials. The lack of management by civilian officials greatly affected the transportation of logistical materials, and in the final analysis, it was not that the soldiers could not walk fast, but that they could not go smoothly and the road was too chaotic.

In this case, Zhou Lang is even more reluctant to go fast, anyway, it will take time for Zhao Wen to raise fishing boats. Therefore, Zhou Lang also came to a hard village to fight in a daze, of course, his hard village is not as hard as Zeng Guofan, there is no trench, no earthen wall, camping is still a convenient tent, just around the sharpened bamboo set up three camp walls, and sent and special guards.

No matter how slow it was, I arrived at the scheduled place at noon the next day, by the river and sea opposite Donggang.

The river is full of water as far as the eye can see, and the subtropical rivers have this characteristic, that is, the river is very wide, because the water is so abundant that you can't even see the other side of the river when you stand on this side of the river.

On the barren beach by the river, small boats are hidden among the alkali-resistant thatch, which Zhao Wen collected from upstream and downstream fishing villages, and it is difficult to find them hidden in the barren grass.

It's very early today, Zhou Lang doesn't plan to set up camp, after all, such a big camp tent is set up, and the blind can see it, and the other party has a guard, and the smuggling becomes a forced crossing.

Zhou Lang stood on a slope on the shore and watched a small boat slowly sail on the wide river.

Zhao Wen personally went to the other side to investigate.

Jumping off the boat, stepping on the flooded sand, he struggled to get ashore, and after seeing Zhou Lang, he reported that there were no Qing troops on the other side.

At this time, there was a faint sound of artillery in the east, and the fleet was already attacking the fort, which attracted the idea of the Qing army, and it happened to be smuggling.

Zhou Lang ordered: "Zhao Wen, you take the soldiers and horses of your headquarters to land first and cover the follow-up troops!" ”

Even if there is no enemy for the time being, Zhou Lang doesn't want to be careless, the price of making mistakes is too high.